It’s tough to be a stranger to Gotye. The Bruges born multi-instrumentalist has had a worldwide hit with Somebody I Used To Know. This is partially due to the meticulous, focused video by Natasha Pincus and Co. Gotye sings about making her “someone he used to know” while he gets painted; Kimbra strips of paint while singing and screaming in his face. And even after singing it in his face, he says the same things… cause that’s all he’s got.

The song amalgamates the freakish, post-empire pop of the past three years. The music is unafraid to be itself as it is arranged, sequenced, and contorted. It owes as much to Jon Brion as it does Peter Gabriel and the Police. Lofty company if you ask me. Two songs later, I Feel Better pops up, a breathe of fresh air past the smoky mirrors that dominate the first half of the record. Instead of the wild introspection of Future Islands, action takes precedent, moving forward in life and in attitude. With a Motown horn backing, no less. This track really isn’t progressive rock, or funk… its music of elation, release, and possibly deception.

Calling Making Mirrors a break-up record is like saying all ice cream is chocolate: you’re only as right as you want to be. A story as deliberate as this record can be clear and pointedly arched. Yet you are the sole viewer of the story. Your view is your complete own. The new power pop that Gotye brings (one lacking genres, geographic regions and race) is in its own world, unable or unwilling to grasp anything beyond its measures. So I Feel Better could be completely honest or completely dishonest. Projection instead of reflection.